Improvement in the construction of ordnance



N; WIARD.

Ordnance.

2 Sheets--SheetZ N. WIARD.

Ordnance.

No 39,604. Patented Aug. 18, 1863).

NORMAN VIARD, OF NFV YORK, N. Y..

IMPROVEMENT IN THE CONSTRUCTION OF ORDNANCE.

Specification forming part ofLetters Patent-No. 32??.60/1, dated August 1S, 1863.

To @ZZ whom it may concern:

Be it known that I, NORMAN VIARD, of the city of New York, in the county and State of New York, have invented a certain new and useful Improvement in Ordnance; and I do hereby declare that the following is a full and exact description Vof the construction and operation of the same, sufficiently in detail to afford to thoseskilled in the arts to which the several features of the invention are most nearly allied a clear idea of the novelty or novelties therein.

The accompanying drawings form a portion of this specification.

Figure 1 represents a cast-iron gun cored according to my invention. The upper side of this gure is a longitudinal central section. The lower side of this figure is a side elevation. Fig. 2 is a cross-section of the same on the line S S in Fig. l. Fig. 3 is a rear elevation of the same. Fig. et represents a forged or cast gun bored according to my invention. Fig. 5 is a front view of the same. Fig. G represents another mode of boring which I priopose to adopt in carrying out my invention. The upper half is a longitudinal central sec.- tion. The lower half is a side elevation. Fig. 7-the upper half of this gure is a cross-section on line S S in Fig. 6. 'Ihe lower half of this figure is a front elevation of the same gun.

Similar letters of referen ce indi cate lik e parts in all the figures.

My gun is cast with cores, or is otherwise so constructed of a single metal that a series of cavities exist in the thickest portion of the gun. These cavities are so arranged that the gun may be heated onits interior by rapid firing, and may be also subjected to the great mechanical force due to the iiring of heavy charges, and may be in both conditions at the same moment without as severe strain on the gun or any part thereof as in guns of the ordinary construction. I prefer to employ cast` iron as a material, using such mixtures thereof as shall from time to time be found by trial to be best adapted for the purpose; but mixtures of iron which are impracticable in the ordinary forms of guns may be used in this with some success by reason of the provision in this invention for the unequal expansion of the metal.

Bronze and any other metal used in gunmaking may be employed in making guns according to this invention.

I believe my invention is particularly well adapted to the use of cast-steel and of the sev- .eral varieties of hard and strong metal known as puddled steel, semi-steel, Src.

I have had experience in the fabrication of guns, and the invention described and claimed in this specification is one of several which I have made to overcome the difficulties met with inmthe attempt to produce large guns of semi steel. I have made sm all guns (less than twenty pounders) of semi-steel, and they have endured every kind of test to which they have been subjected, and have been very successful in the field, but on attempting to fabricate fiftypounders of the same metal I lfound they burst with ordinary charges when fired rapidly, and, in short, that I could not make a successful fift T-pounder of such material in the ordinary form and construction of guns. I ascribe my failure to succeed to the unequal heating and consequent unequal expansion and violent strain on the metal, there being no provision for adequate elasticity in thermetal to allow of "such unequal expansion. In my present invention there is such provision. This provision exists in the disposition of the metal in understood that the holes may be produced by either coring or drilling, but that coring is preferable for various reasons when the gunA is to be cast. In making guns of wrought-iron, puddled steel, or the like, and in changing cast-iron or bronze guns which have been already made in the old way so as to contain my present invention the holes may be produced by boring.

. To "enable others skilled in the art to make and use my invention, I will proceed to describe the construction of one of my guns by the aid of the drawings'and of the letters of reference marked thereon. Y

Figs. l, 2, and 3: In thesefigures the metal of the gun is denoted by A, with various appended numbers to designate different parts yand in one piecewith each.

l sider it necessary to do so.

of such metal. The bore of the gun, which is of the ordinary character, either rifled or plain, is designated by a. B B B, 8vo., are cavities produced by the introduction of cores of corresponding form. These cavities extend from a point near the extreme rear to a point forward of the trunnions.

B B are other cavities cored or molded in the breech in the position represented. A is continuous and stout shell, of metal, which bounds the bore a in the usual manner. It is sounder and stronger than a corresponding` portion of the metal of an ordinarygun, be-

Y Creuse uit iscast thinner rwreunifcmiucharacter. A? is a thick ring of the same metal cast at the same time and in one piece with A', and standing so related thereto as to embrace the same through the medium of the connections represented. A5 are the connectionsbetween A and A2, cast at the same time A4 represents the portion of metal between the cored cavities B and the other several cavities B. A5 are the connections across the ring or circular metal A4. The cascabel is cast on the junction or central part of A5. rIhe trunnions are cast on the thick ring A2. The mass of A2 is so great relatively to the mass of the parts within it that it remains fluid a little longer than the parts within it, and consequently, when it cools, exerts a very powerful strain of compression upon the interior parts, A and A3, which are embraced within it. The cores B B are of such form that the webs A3 are curved, as representedin Fig. 2. This-curvature allows them to yield slightly to the compression exerted by the cooling of the ring A2. This curvature also allows them to yield to a slight extent farther than usual when the interior of the gun or the metal A is expanded by the heat due to rapid firing. The form and position of the cavities B also allow thepart A to expand longitudinally without necessitating a corresponding expansion of the thick ring A2. If the cores be cooled by any application of water-pipes or the like, as has been recently practiced in cooling cores for the bore of guns, lthe cooling of the parts A and A3 willbe still more rapid; but I do not con- If the cavities B and B are left open to the free circulation of air when the gun is in use, a portion of the heat which vis received and conducted outwardly through A will be carried away by the air, and will never affect the temperature of A3.

This may in most cases be an advantage, but

employment of a mere covering, either per-v manent or temporary, on the exterior, to cover the mouths of the cavities.

Figs. el and 5: l These figures represent a gun of a former pattern altered by drilling holes, so as to conform to my invention. In these figures, A (variously indexed, as before) indicates the metal, and a the bore, of the gun. B, C, and D indicate, respectively, series of holes bored in the manner and in the positions indicated, B representing an inner series, Can intermediate series, and D an exterior series. Each hole is bored in two distinct and different lines, intersecting each other at a point at the thickest or nearly the thickest part of the gun, one part of cach hole being bored from a point forward of such junctiomand the oth er from a point in the rear of such` junction, as represented.

ordinary pattern, differently bored, so as to conform to my invention. A is the metal of the gun, and @the bore. B, B, Src., are tapering holes drilled or rimmed by a tool of proper form in the several positions represented. The plans of boring shown in Figs. et and 5 and 6 and 7 may obviously be applied to forged guns of all kinds. I propose to manufacturethis gun, when it is practicable to do so,by casting it in the manner shown in Figs.1,2, and 3,and when, by reason of the impracticability of casting the material, or by reason. of the gun having been already cast in the old form I cannot employ such a method of fabrication, I then propose to employ one of the modes of drilling described in Figs. 4t and 5 or 6 and 7, or some other equivalent mode which will have the effect to give the metal the same open condition. The vent of guns cored in the manner represented may be introduced in any convenient position. I prefer the position indicatedby the dotted red line in Fig. 2.

The effectv of my invention is to produce sounder castings throughout than when the gun is ycast in a very great mass, for reasons which are well-known to founders. It also `allows the interior metal of the gun to expand by heat both radially and in the direction of the length of the gun without compelling an equal lengthening of the metal on the exterior of the gun,and yet carries the exterior metal, A2, to contribute its strength to the gun, to avoid the, actual rending of the latter by the severe mechanical force of the powder.

Some of the advantages due to certain features of my invention may be separately enumerated as follows:

V First. By reason ofthe fact that the metal of the gun is perforated with holes extending not parallel to the bore or radially thereto, but

extending, as represented by B in al1 the figures, obliquely outward from the point nearest the bore, I accommodate the rapid expansion of the inner metal of the gun, when suddenly heated, by providing a suitable elasticity not alone radially or longitudinally, but in both directions, and am able to present a great surface to the cooling effect of the air.

Second. By reason of the fact that the metal A3 adapted to communicate force or strain between the metal A on the interior, and the metal A2 or re-enforce on the exterior, stands curved or inclined, as shown in Fig. 2, I pro- Figsand; These representa een ofen;

sacca Y 3 vide a higher degree of elasticity in the radial direction than Would otherwise be available, and make the effect when the gun is strained analogous to the Well-known example of a cast Wheel with curved arms.

Third. By reason of the fact that the re-euforce A`l acts with a great strain of compression on the elastic Webs A,whether this compression be due, as in the gun described, to the latter time of the cooling and shrinking of .the 1netal,A2,or to being manufactured separatelyT of a smaller diam'eter and shrunk on, the inner metal, A', is more favorably compressed and supported to resist the mechanical force of the burning powder than by any preViously-linown construction. The superiority is due to the fact that the compressive force exerted on A may be always Very near the maXimun when the gun is fired7 because it is nearly constant under all conditions. It is but little greater when A is heated and expanded, because the Webs A are correspondingly deflected and re sist less directly than when A is cool and contracted, and the Webs A are more nearly radi al. The former is the condition after the gun has been iired rapidly, and thelatter is the condi- `AS between the outer and inner metal of a gun,

for the purpose herein set forth.

3. The Within-described arrangement and combination of a highly compressive re-enforce, A2, the elastic Webs A2, and the interior metal, A, of a gun, substantially as and for the purpose herein set forth.

NORMAN NVIARD.

Nitnessesz Trroims D. SrnTsoN, EMIL VossNAcK. 

